What Is Condensed Milk Ice Cream?

Typically, ice cream contains milk or cream or components of milk. Ice cream manufacturers can use industrial processing to mix and freeze the ingredients together for a creamy and thick end product, but home cooks either have to use an ice cream maker or follow specific freezing steps to get a similarly textured product. When using a condensed milk ingredient, on the other hand, the freezing technique is more straightforward. A condensed milk ice cream can contain such flavors as fruit, vanilla, or coffee, just like regular ice cream.

Condensed milk is a preserved form of milk, available in tins and in squeezable bottles. Basically it is milk that has been reduced down with the addition of sugar. In appearance it is creamy colored, and has the consistency of thick syrup. Regular ice cream requires 10-20%t sugar, or a sweetener like corn syrup, to give the required sugary taste to the finished product. The strongly sweet flavor of the preserved milk gives the resulting condensed milk ice cream this sweetness.

As well as condensed milk, an essential ingredient for this dish is whipped cream, which may be either whipped with the condensed milk or alone. This gives the airiness to the finished product that would otherwise be missing. Depending on the preferred flavor of the ice cream, possible additions include vanilla, lemon juice or cinnamon. Fruit, heated and dissolved with sugar, or chopped up bananas or biscuits, are also suitable for a condensed milk ice cream.

Normally ice cream requires churning to prevent large ice crystals from forming during the freezing process. Churning is a repetitive movement of the mixture that makes the ice cream smoother and therefore gives it a creamier taste and texture on the tongue. Ice cream maker machines also churn the mixture while the dessert is setting and freezing, but people who make the ice cream by hand have to break up the mixture by hand every so often to discourage the development of crystals.

Some of the recipes for condensed milk ice cream do not require the cook to mix up the ice cream during the freezing process, as the condensed milk is naturally smooth. Other recipes that instruct the cook to add extra ingredients when the condensed milk ice cream is in the freezer do need to be churned by hand at least once. Commonly the ice cream partially freezes and then the biscuit or fudge additions go into the container.